You are a respected elder statesman from Igboland. You are talking about restructuring but the agitation by members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) is for total separation. What is your take on that?
If Nigeria disintegrates there will be Biafra. When I say Biafra I don’t mean the old Biafra of the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Biafra means (and those who don’t know it should know now), conscience. Like Noble Laureate Wole Soyinka said recently, Biafra is an attitudinal matter. Biafra is self-determination. What the South-south people, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), are talking about for their self-determination is Biafra not territorial Biafra. People should understand that. They are talking about Biafra of the conscience, Biafra of justice, and Biafra of self-determination that sovereignty belongs also to them and that they should get their own side of it. Go to the South-west, what Afenifere is talking now is Biafra. Afenifere is saying that if Nigeria is going to disintegrate, they want their own Biafra; they want their own self-determination. So, Biafra as self-determination, applies to South-west, South-east, South-south, North-east, North-west and North central.
When the late Saudana of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, was governing the entire Northern region as premier, he used proceeds from groundnuts to build great universities. Then, the North had economic sustainability. In the West, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, used proceeds from cocoa to build the first television station in Africa. And Nigeria can still produce more cocoa than Ivory Coast, which survives on proceeds from cocoa, or equal them. In the East, we had rubber and palm oil plantations. Today, Michellin has gone; they had factories here, but they don’t produce tyres anymore in Nigeria. But we have the rubber, we have the raw material. We can start exporting it or we will establish factories that will manufacture better tyres for our vehicles. Why do we have to import virtually everything we need in this country?
So, when you have a system that encourages the economy of self-reliance of all the component parts of Nigeria, using the mineral resources available to them to do exactly what God says they should do, that is Biafra. During the civil war, we were refining crude oil into petrol in the bush for 30 months and distributing to cars and whatever. For aircrafts there was an element that was added during the refining process to get aviation fuel that the jets used. This was done sustainably by a part that believed in itself, in its own technology and in its own advancement for almost three years. So, if all parts of Nigeria can exercise their right to self-determination, there will be healthy competition and sustainable development.
Do you think this is achievable under a united Nigeria in the face of growing separatist agitations?
The separatist agitations are against unitary federalism as our system of government. The separatist agitators are calling for a true federal system of government within one Nigeria. The Afenifere of the West is an army of the Yorubas. Are you deceived by it? It is an Oduduwa army and security apparatus. You have it in IPOB, the militants in the Niger Delta and so on. Are you waiting until everybody starts fighting each other before you do the right things? The country would go into abyss if that is allowed to happen.
So you believe that IPOB, for instance, is not serious with its quest to have a country called Biafra?
They are our children. Ohanaeze Ndigbo is one imperial institution of all Igbos; it doesn’t matter who you are. Ohanaeze believes in justice, equity and fair play. Ohanaeze believes in the autonomy of federating units and that these units should subscribe to the centre for what the centre should do for the country. What are the things the centre should do for the country? They should be in charge of foreign affairs and protection of territorial integrity. They should also have a central police, but the component units should be allowed to have state police with the two complementing each other. That is what operates in the U.S. and it makes them to grow rapidly. Nigeria can also move fast if we do the right things. Last year, Nigeria was ranked as the largest economy in Africa. Last week, we heard that Nigeria has gone below, that South Africa has taken its place. The next you will hear, if care is not taken, is that Nigeria is below Egypt. And before you know it we will be fourth or fifth on the ladder. You see, we are going down. Is it when we reach the drains that people will begin to ask what happened or how did we get there?
Today, most Nigerians who have their thinking faculties say that the price of Nigeria’s crude oil should not rise to $100 in the immediate future. When we reform let it go up. Let it rise when we know how to use our cocoa, rubber, cotton, etc. We are dormant because we run a mono economy. Everything depends on oil and yet the communities where you get the resources are not benefitting. Let the economy remain depressed for the next two years so we can recycle Nigeria and move forward as a country.
You witnessed the build up to the civil war and eventually went to the battle front on the side of Biafra. What do you expect leaders of the country to be doing at a time like this?
Ojukwu, before he died, said ‘please don’t fight another civil war. Do all you can to rectify any anormaly. Shout and protest but don’t fight another civil war’. It’s on YouTube and we have shared it with members of the IPOB. That is why the disobedience of the boys is very civil and not armed. But you see some people provoking them by killing them and so on.
Only recently they started releasing some of them that were being incarcerated. Some are still being incarcerated even when the courts have granted them bail. We do not believe in another civil war. We believe that civic actions will eventually lead us to a solution, the aggregate of which would come from the people. Restructuring used to be a dirty and innocuous word a year ago but it is no longer. I now hear it everywhere. There is a thunderous yes to restructuring everywhere it is mentioned now. When you have that kind of hilarious cry, people who say they are deaf their ears will open. And their ears will open more because the economic situation is bad. They can see it with their own eyes. Many world powers are now advising Nigeria to change the system because the people want it. Any government that doesn’t have good ears would soon hear.

This man is very sensible. I like his outlook.